Voices Reflect Rising Sense of Racial Optimism

[liberalpragmatist]

Source: New York Times

MILWAUKEE — Although the civil rights movement gave Samuel Sallis equality under the law a long time ago, he was left wanting most of his life, he says, for the subtle courtesies and respect he thought would come with it. Being a working-class black man downtown here meant being mostly ignored, living a life invisible and unacknowledged in a larger white world.

Then Mr. Sallis, 69, noticed a change.

“I’ve been working downtown for 30 years, so I’ve got a good feeling for it,” Mr. Sallis said. “Since President Obama started campaigning, if I go almost anywhere, it’s: ‘Hi! Hello, how are you, sir?’ I’m talking about strangers. Calling me ‘sir.’ ”

He added: “It makes you feel different, like, hey — maybe we are all equals. I’m no different than before. It’s just that other people seem to be realizing these things all around me.”

In dozens of interviews in seven states over the last several days, black men and women like Mr. Sallis said they were feeling more optimistic about race relations than even a year ago, when Mr. Obama emerged as a serious presidential contender after a string of primary and caucus victories. Many whites said they were feeling better, too, expressing an invigorated sense of openness toward people of other races.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/us/politics/03race.html?hp

[drm604]

1. Yes.

It seemed intuitive to me that this would be a result. Many whites who don't consciously consider themselves superior in fact do have nearly subconscious attitudes that they're being forced to confront, and I say that as a white man.

While we still have a long way to go, I think that we've just made a large jump forward as a society.

[zazen]

2. I'm personally embarrassed to admit this too

On election night I realized an entire new level of my own cluelessness (Southern white woman here). To me, Obama being of multiracial descent was just icing. I would have been thrilled to have practically any Democrat after the past eight years, so someone of his brilliance, charisma, and humility, with that amazing wife, was just wonderful. And then during the election night party downtown the energy and tears of the African American campaign workers was particularly inspiring--and when we drove home through downtown Raleigh, thousands of cheering people, mostly African American, spontaneously poured into the streets. Sadly, I'd only seen that kind of spontaneous outpouring before on Franklin Street after the Heels won a tournament.

I grew up among civil rights activists in G'boro and in the race riots in Wilmington and thought I was pretty aware. But I remember just starting to bawl in the Home Depot the following day when it hit me that most African Americans really didn't believe white people--"good" white people--Democrats, people like me, nice, white, liberal, well-meaning people like me (hah)--would vote for someone just because they were African American. Behind all of their smiles around me, and in the eyes of their children, was an ever present, and reasonable, suspicion that I secretly thought something bad about them, a suspicion that I never have to walk around with as a white person. I've had the experience of dealing with men and women who've treated me like I was an idiot because I was a athletic looking blonde, and I've been sexually harassed thousands of times, so I do know something of discrimination, but I'd never gotten until last November how pervasive and invisible my own white privilege has been to me. Just like the men at whom I've been pissed because they're blind to their invisible, daily privilege, I've been blind to the freedom I have to walk around free from all of the crap that would be hurled at me consciously and unconsciously simply were I several shades darker with African features.

I mean, I knew this before, intellectually. But Obama's election has made it more experientially real for me, and it probably does show up in my behavior towards African Americans. I think I do reach out more now.

[Number23]

3. What an interesting article

Thanks for posting.

And thanks to zazen for Post #2. :hug:

[struggle4progress]

4. ... It's been a long a long time comin but I always believed a change was gonna come ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYzIe7_tx9Y

[KharmaTrain]

5. Larry Wilmore Nailed It On TDS...

He was the head writer for Living Colour and a featured contributor on the Daily Show. He did a hillarious bit with JS last week saying how he couldn't use his "poor exploited black" material anymore. The election of President Obama had made race "less funny"...now longer could he use the "now if a black were President..." material.

I feel this country has come a long way in race relations in my lifetime. From Jim Crow to Mr. President. There is (or was) a growing black middle class and our society is beginning to look past the color of a person's skin. It's not all roses. I still see a lot of racism around...stereotypes and race baiting. There are still too many blacks stuck in the poverty cycle due to lack of jobs and business opportunities, but it's now being recognized as it should have been...not a matter of race, but of class.